Growing old can bring a renewed sense of happiness and wellbeing, despite physical and mental declines, researchers report today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The finding adds to growing evidence that aging is not all "doom and gloom," said Dilip Jeste, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Instead, old age can be a time of growth, and older people can be a helpful resource for younger generations.

Psychiatrists, too, might do well to re-evaluate their expectations for older patients.